A health worker alleged to have sworn at and slapped a dementia patient told investigators she would treat everyone in her care “as if they were my parent”.

Health care support worker Fiona Jeanette Riley was alleged to have struck the 78-year-old man at Cefn Coed Hospital in Swansea in June last year, as she and others had attempted to shower him after he was found to have soiled himself.

A colleague, staff nurse Nicola Jane Scott, is accused of failing to record the alleged incident in a report log.

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The allegations had been made by an agency nurse, Patsy Reed, who was working with the colleagues that night, who claimed Riley had lashed out and called the patient a b*****d, after he had been taken to the floor when he became abusive and aggressive, and he had attempted to bite Scott on the bottom.

Swansea Crown Court was read a police interview with Riley, after the incident had been reported to authorities by Mrs Reed.

Riley told officers she had worked at the hospital for the past 18 years, but had only worked a few shifts with Mrs Reed before the alleged incident.

She said she had got on with Mrs Reed “like a house on fire”, and described the agency nurse as being “lovely with patients”.

The court heard she also described the patient at a “true gentleman”, even though he had difficulty communicating, and was rarely able to recognise his family in photographs.